Could a Chinese buyer scoop up Murdoch’s titles?

The paper calls it a “bomb shock” to British politics. Have no doubt, the world is watching the UK right now.

Today’s select committee hearings could go some way to answering the question of who will be left standing at Scotland Yard, at News Corp. and in the government once the full force of the phone-hacking scandal hits. To the West of the UK in the States, Democrats are rubbing their hands with glee as their chance to scupper Murdoch’s poisonous Fox network ahead of the election with a beleaguered Obama, comes into view. To the East, in China, people keep their cards closer to their chests, but it would not surprise me if discussions are already happening about how picking up a stake in what ends up being left of Murdoch’s.

British titles would assist China’s soft power push exponentially. Desperate to improve China’s image abroad, there is now a European and American edition of China Daily, the country’s major state-run English-language newspaper, and Xinhua, the state agency is also making inroads in the Western market. Would this not be the chance to push China’s agenda efficaciously? The Chinese are savvy operators. They would not envisage marching up to Wapping singing the East is Red, wearing Mao suits, but they could lean on a Hong Kong billionaire to invest in a title. A businessman from the former British colony, such as Li Ka-Shing, the richest person in East Asia, could be even more palatable to the British public than the former KGB officer we have operating the Independent and London Evening Standard. And being from the colonies did no harm to Mr Murdoch after all.

I hope the government acts to safeguard the proprietorship of British newspapers because as they say, better the devil you know.